Contingency Routes: Somali Financial Flows and Transnational

Contingency Routes: Somali Financial Flows and Transnational Spaces between Kenya and Uganda Researcher: Gianluca Iazzolino Introduction Since the collapse of the Somali state in 1991, the Somali diaspora has been forced to navigate a very volatile landscape. Neighbouring countries in East Africa, particularly Kenya, have been prime recipients of waves of displaced persons from Somalia. Macro-level factors— such as the so-called War on Terror—have interacted with national refugee regimes and local dynamics of refugee camps and urban settings to shape refugee experiences. At the same time, refugees have not simply reacted to external circumstances, but have cultivated desires and life projects that are reflected in mobility patterns, vocational aspirations and in general decision- making processes. Financial arrangements play a crucial role in how Somali refugees are able to hedge against volatility. Established and more recent financial institutions—and particularly their interplay—allow the mobilization and accumulation of strategic resources through which Somalis foster physical and social mobility aspirations. Migration—a coping strategy deeply ingrained in Somali society and culture—is thus entwined with access to financial institutions. For this reason, a primary concern of my research is to flesh out the dynamics presiding over the interweaving of human and monetary flows. In so doing, it seeks to understand: What role do financial institutions play in the key decision-making processes in the case of the Somali diaspora? How is value stored, transferred, and enhanced amid a rapidly changing political scenario? And what is the logic underpinning the combination, or replacement, of long- standing and recent financial practices? 1 I investigate the relationship between financial practices, livelihoods, and mobility among members of the Somali diaspora in East Africa. While the nexus between financial practices and livelihoods comprises a bulky literature, mobility is an often overlooked dimension of everyday finance, even though, as in the case of the Somali diaspora, it plays a critical role in security and making a livelihood. Furthermore, my research yields important insights into the underlying dynamics of different but interwoven socio-technical arrangements. Some of these arrangements have a long history (such as the self-enforcing system hawala) while others, like mobile money, are more recent. In the course of my investigation, I have narrowed my focus to two sites—Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate and Kampala’s Kisenyi slum—and particularly to the exchanges and flows between these two spaces, the main centres of the Somali diaspora in East Africa. This specific route offers the possibility to observe how the above-mentioned issues play out in decision- making processes in times of uncertainty. The flows between these two centres have increased in recent years because of factors at the national and regional level. I have identified three main human mobility drivers: the growing pressure on Somali refugees in Kenya, where state security concerns have increasingly permeated public discourses on refugee issues; Uganda's refugee legal framework, based on the 2006 Refugee Act and implemented in 2010; and ease of access to neighbouring areas, particularly the Uganda-DRC borderland, Rwanda, and also to Somalia, thanks to direct flights connecting Entebbe airport to Mogadishu and to a visa policy that allows Somali passport-holders to re-enter Uganda. Until recent upheavals, this included South Sudan, where fresh business opportunities had drawn the interest of resourceful refugees. By examining the decision-making processes that have contributed to shape the route between Eastleigh and Kisenyi, I pay particular attention to the financial practices that facilitate 2 the storage of value and access to cross-border mobility. I argue that, in the case of the Somali diaspora, concerns over the ability to cultivate many options and preserve alternatives in a rapidly shifting landscape drive the financial decisions of everyday life. Balancing short and long-term temporalities thus necessitates adopting strategies that are based on currency conversions, intertwining monetary circuits and heterogeneous forms of capital. The relationship between livelihood, mobility, and financial practices thus lies in the constant pursuit of assets— such as hard currency but also IDs and study degrees—acquired not only to anticipate the unpredictable, but also to enable both physical and social mobility. It is worth noticing that a rapidly-shifting scenario, as I explain below, loomed in the background for Somali diasporic communities, as well as for me in my role as researcher, since a deteriorating security situation in Kenya limited both mine and the subjects of my investigation’s mobility. A spate of terror attacks in Kenya and a crackdown by the Kenyan security forces on Somali refugees, particularly in Eastleigh, inevitably had repercussions on my data collection, in terms of security constraints and relation with the informants, some of whom were particularly wary of being objects of scrutiny by media and intelligence. This was mainly the case for hawala agents, or hawaladdar, whose activities, often unlicensed, regularly arouse financial regulators’ suspicions of money-laundering. Honouring confidentiality as a professional virtue, especially as a large number of Somalis were using hawala to transfer money abroad (to Uganda, Somalia, or Dubai), they were quite reluctant to disclose the figures of their business, keeping their ledgers well out of my gaze. However, after a laborious trust-building process, they became eventually willing to discuss their views on Somali financial habits. In some cases, my own Italian background unexpectedly struck a nostalgic chord, as many senior Somalis from Southern Somalia were particularly keen to retrieve the Italian language they had learned in their early 3 years when they were part of the school system of the Somalia italiana. They played a crucial role in negotiating access on my behalf to their more suspicious and less sentimental countrymen. Interactions with Somalis in Kampala were somehow easier, although at the moment of writing (May 2014), scores of Somali refugees were arriving daily in Uganda, a flow that characterized a situation in constant flux. In the course of my investigation, I interviewed 30 financial operators (hawaladdar, M- Pesa agents, and local banks employees), most of whom agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. I also interviewed businesspeople, community leaders, and religious and political authorities, in both Eastleigh and Kisenyi. This paper is divided into two parts: the first part begins with an overview of Somali mobility patterns across East Africa. Then, it focuses on Eastleigh and on more familiar financial practices like hawala that have contributed to Eastleigh’s development, newer financial practices like the mobile money service M-Pesa that have redefined trade, and the interplay of these two monetary circuits. The second part is devoted to the events that are currently ushering in profound changes in the setting of my study. I thus describe the drivers of mobility that are shaping the emergence of a Somali route to Uganda, particularly the increased pressure on the Somali refugee population in Kenya and the emergence of a new Little Mogadishu in Kisenyi, Kampala. Somali mobility patterns in East Africa Mobility is often considered a practice deeply rooted in Somali culture and society. This argument mostly derives from literature on the pastoralist livelihoods practiced since pre- colonial times by Somali-speaking groups who move through the dry lands of the Horn of Africa 4 in search of pastures and sources of water for their herds (Horst 2006). However, over time, other categories of people from the Somali territories, mainly from urban coastal areas, have pursued different migration projects, embedded in colonial armies or as seafarers, students or labourers in the Gulf oil industry in the 1970s. Groups featuring a nomadic lifestyle have established their presence in a broad territory spanning across Somalia, Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Kenya. At the same time, clan affiliations across state borders have proved a critical safety net in troubled times. This aspect became particularly significant as the Somali state begun to crumble during the 1980s and eventually collapsed in 1991. Mass displacements initially occurred in the Northern regions, ravaged by the war between the central government and the Somali National Movement (SNM), and eventually to Central-Southern Somalia, following the overthrow of Somali president Siad Barre and the eruption of an internecine conflict. The ensuing humanitarian crisis displaced hundreds of thousands people, who crossed into Kenya and sought shelter in humanitarian facilities or urban centres. In general, refugees without resources head towards the camps while those who were able to secure their properties in advance, or could rely on kin in Kenya, resettled in cities. A major pole of attraction was Nairobi's Eastleigh estate. Locating Eastleigh Among Kenyans in Nairobi and across the country, the name of Eastleigh conjures up clear-cut, yet contradicting ideas: good deals, cheap goods, and a large variety of items from textiles to electronics. It also conjures up images of money laundering from illicit business and a Somali enclave where Islamist militants from Somalia can blend in and plot against Kenya. An article

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